Page 4374 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 30 November 1994
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So, the right to earn a living ends when you interfere with somebody else's standard of living - the right to live in relative peace and quiet. This is something that is well known under law, and I am sure that no-one would disagree with it. It is the point we must remember because it is not just a matter of a person's right to earn a living. There are many restrictions that we have in our lives. You have a right to earn a living; but you have to have these licences, pay these taxes, operate within certain hours, operate only in certain localities, and so on.
What are some of the problems that are caused? First of all, let me look at the danger involved to neighbourhoods. Urban areas in Canberra were not designed to accommodate large commercial vehicles - 10 wheelers, 18 wheelers, 20 wheelers. They cannot go around the corners without going onto the wrong side of the road. They cannot make turns within a street in many cases without going over the footpaths and without going over the centre kerb areas.
Let us look at a couple of problems that have been sent to me. I will not mention the names because they are not particularly important. The principles are important, though. This is from a newspaper article:
... a nearby semitrailer is a noisy nuisance, waking him up in the early hours of the morning and late at night.
... the semitrailer's presence has also resulted in a devaluation of his property. [He] says this was confirmed by the Department of Administrative Services in 1992 and resulted in a provisional reduction in his rates.
... an engineer from the Traffic and Roads Section subsequently inspected the street, finding slight cracking in the pavement.
This cracking in the pavement is a very important point that I will get back to in due course. There was a government poster in Woden, in the square, covering the development of ACT roads. It indicated that one heavy vehicle has the wear and tear on the roads of 15,000 cars. That is a remarkable figure. But it is well known that it is not an arithmetic progression as you go up in weight; it is geometric. It rockets like the national debt has in Australia over the last few decades. Let me read about another case. This is a letter from a constituent and it says:
Next door there is a trucking business where large trucks are parked and repaired.
I am selecting sections from these letters. This letter continues:
Beside the noise, danger and pollution associated with this business there has been two large explosions which were heard half a kilometre away.
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